Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s baserunning Saturday night may have cost the Toronto Blue Jays a World Series.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kiner-Falefa had a very shallow lead at third base. On contact, he ran toward home and was thrown out despite Miguel Rojas bobbling the ball. Many questioned his short lead at third base, wondering why he wasn’t farther away from third base. Others questioned why he chose to slide when it was a force play.
As fans took to social media to express their frustrations, a former member of the Toronto Blue Jays was quick to jump on social media and defend Kiner-Falefa.
“He did exactly right here,” Whit Merrifield wrote on X. “The #1 rule with bases loaded and less than 2 outs is you cannot get doubled up on a line drive to 3rd baseman. So your lead is as far as the 3rd baseman is from the bag. He did this perfect.”
Merrifield was asked in the comment section of his own post about Kiner-Falefa’s decision to slide into home and whether running through the base would have been the smarter play.
“I don’t know about running through home,” Merrifield added in the comments. “Maybe sliding head first. I’ve always been a believer head first is faster.”
Head first sliding may have been faster than a feet first slide, but any form of sliding is going to cause a player to slow down even for a split second. For those on the outside, any form of a slide in that situation doesn’t make sense.
Kiner-Falefa’s short lead and sliding decisions were just two of the problems for Toronto Saturday night. Jeff Hoffman conceding a home run to Rojas in the top half of the inning was arguably an even bigger blow. Giving up a home run to Will Smith in the 11th inning was without a doubt more costly.
Regardless of which mistake fans want to point to and place the blame for losing the World Series, the Blue Jays will be having nightmares about this game all winter.
More MLB: Alex Rodriguez Slams Addison Barger, Blue Jays for 9th Inning Baserunning
Read the full article here
